New Media for the Evolving Artist
Photo by Till Krech
This quote from the Quotations Page’s Quote of the Day:
“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”
– Alfred Hitchcock
Keep that in mind next time you’re debating whether to cut that extra scene.
Michael Learmonth of Silicon Valley Insider, speculates that Hulu is selling ads at $25 CPM (cost per mille), and that their monthly traffic of 5 million viewers would translate to $125,000 after revenue sharing. He doesn’t cover what numbers he thinks Hulu has on the expenses side of the balance sheet, but does say that $1.5 million annually is not going to cover the costs of a venture valued at $1 billion.
Of course Hulu will probably gain viewers over time, but the catch is that, as viewers increase, so do the costs of bandwidth and marketing. Silicon Valley Insider has another post about why Hulu will fail. Both of these articles raise valid questions for anyone looking to distribute their own content. Even for people not hoping to make a profit large enough to live on, the requirement remains to have a model where you can increase viewership without incurring incremental costs greater than the returns.
So what’s the business model for your content?
Guerrilla Filmmaking is a subset of indie films closely related to low-to-no budget films that is characterized by the attitude of “shoot now, ask later”. Show up on location, with a small crew and light gear. Shoot quick and dirty, and if anyone questions you, run away. (NB: I am aware that this is an exaggeration. Hold off on the flame mail.)
I’m not sure this is the best way to make a film, but it certainly is one way. Guerrilla Filmmaking Tips and Tricks has several resources for ultra-low budget films including a couple Top Ten Lists like TopTenTips [sic] for Movie Production and Guerilla Filmmaking. Ask any editor, and they will tell you to pay particular attention to #10.
A similar list is Dan’s TopTenTips [sic] for Short Film Makers which includes some of the same rules. I like this checklist for a short film. I have been guilty of violating at least some of those rules, but if someone had told me this before I started I might have done things differently.
If you follow developments in digital video like I do, you’ve probably been drooling over the Red One for quite some time now. I won’t attempt to explain the impact of the Red One in it’s entirety just yet, but I thought you might be interested in seeing an example of the Red One’s new feature: 120fps shooting. This lets you get true slow-motion footage, rather than creating it by interpolating frames in your edit system.
Mike Curtis has graciously posted footage over at ProVideo Coalition of Spencer chasing tennis balls. It’s worth a look.
The Red One, although vastly more affordable than it’s competitors, remains out of the price range of most small budget independents (at about $17,500 for the body alone), but it’s being put to good use by the likes of Steven Soderbergh, Peter Jackson, and Doug Liman.
To get a sense of the effect the Red One is having on the industry, consider Soderbergh’s reaction: “This is the camera I’ve been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded onboard a camera light enough to hold with one hand. I don’t know how Jim [Jannard, Red founder] and the Red team did it–and they won’t tell me–but I know this: Red is going to change everything”.
Ken Levine, TV Comedy Writer, has a timely post called “If a major studio gave notes on JUNO.” This is a great humorous take on how a major studio would have changed the Oscar-nominated film from something fresh and poignant to just another stereotypical, bawdy Rom-Com.
Thoughts on why being independent, small budgets and all, is something worth being grateful for.
“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.” – Orson Welles
A huge budget and studio backing of your project does not bring you freedom. With all that money comes accountability to your investors. For the same reason that accepting venture capital as a business startup limits your control, getting financial backing doesn’t free you to do what you wanted to do with your film. It forces you to accommodate the opinions of the people who just bought into your film.
The drive to make your project financially successful can get in the way of taking risks with originality and stifle the art. Working on a small budget, and being forced to solve problems in the production of your film causes creativity to be a necessity. That creativity might just lead you into creating art instead of just entertainment.
(What is ‘Art’? That’s a bigger question. Feel free to sound off in comments.)
Slate has an old article (Neither the Power Nor the Glory, 2005) that goes into the economic differences distinguishing indies from studio films. There is one quote that pretty much sums up why I’m grateful to be involved in indie projects: “Studios…leave originality, and all the joy that comes from it, to the indies.”
Just received this email from MoveOn.org. Looks like a great opportunity for the more politically inclined filmmakers out there.
Today, we’re launching an ad contest called “Obama in 30 Seconds.” Anyone can make an ad about Obama between now and April 1. The public will vote on the best ads, and a panel of top artists, film professionals, and netroots heroes will pick a winner from among the finalists. (Judges include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Naomi Wolf, Oliver Stone, John Legend, Donna Edwards, and Markos Moulitsas. The full list is below.)
We’ll air the winning Obama ad nationally, and the winner will receive a gift certificate for $20,000 in video equipment. Whether you’re definitely interested or need time to think about it, let us know—we’ll keep you in the loop as the contest proceeds. Get contest details, sign up, and watch a short video of MoveOn’s Eli Pariser describing the contest by clicking here:
There you have it. Visit the site for details and take your shot at $20,000 in video equipment.
Chad Gervich over at Script Notes has a great list of Upcoming Contests & Festivals (including DC Shorts). Check it out. Get your work seen.
The title of this post could also be “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” If you’re having trouble seeing the humor in a situation or taking your own project too seriously, check out Movie-A-Minute (also helpful for dealing with pretentious film buffs). It features well-known movies condensed to often comical summaries, such as Citizen Cane:
Rosebud. (dies)
Reporter
What does it mean?
Everybody Else
We don’t know.
THE END
Although simplification can lead to humor, it can also be useful in distilling the theme or purpose of your story. So try it out, you’ll likely benefit from taking a step back, and you might learn something in the process.
Palindrome’s post about Rebranding got me thinking. This blog has evolved to be about more than just the independent film scene. As young professionals in the media industry, we have naturally come to focus on the next wave of opportunities for those who create media. Whether storytellers, citizen journalists, documentarians, or activists, the landscape is changing for anyone who creates media. It seems silly to have a blog named after a medium that will be mostly a relic to the next generation of media creators.
In an era where iPhones and other portable video players are creating new outlets for creative folk it seems more natural to focus on the future of media than it’s past. The excitement of living in an age when digital reproduction and distribution has eroded the marginal cost of delivering one’s creations to the masses (or niches) encompasses far more than the realm bounded by the concept of “indie film”. To that end, I have looked at several new URLs for this blog, but found all of them taken; most by people who haven’t actually bothered to do much but squat on them.
The process of defining and redefining what we explore will likely continue indefinitely, but the tipping point for switching URL approaches as we gain readers. At some point it becomes more trouble than it is worth to change that part of the brand. Thus, our current goal is to find and claim a URL that will encompass all the discussions we post, rather than one that implies a confinement to a single medium.